Customer Reviews

The Long Program: Skating Toward Life's Victories

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

THE LONG PROGRAM was a book I truly enjoyed, from beginning to end. I've always been a Fleming fan, and it was with great interest that I bought the book and began reading about Peggy's humble beginnings, her family's moving around, becoming an athlete, and growing into an Olympic champion. I feel that she was very honest in this book, sharing with the reader the good with the bad, and I felt it was refreshing that she gave her opinion on things like other the performances of other skaters, the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan incident, the changes in skating, etc. For such a private person to share her real struggle with breast cancer and also to include details of her personal life that others may have chosen to gloss over -- these things make for an exceptional autobiography, which I feel this is. She is a real person, and tells it like it is here in her own uplifting way. I recommend this book highly.

I enjoyed reading all the parts of this book that had to do with skating. This is where Peggy is at her best. She is clearly a classy, talented lady. Also, her very honest discussion of her experience with breast cancer was, I think, helpful and insightful. However, I was less interested in the parts of the book dealing with her parenting philosophy, her views on life as a "long program" and her fitness/exercise tips. This was a great book to borrow from the library and curl up with over a long weekend, but it's not one I plan to buy. Still, nothing can diminish Peggy Fleming as a wonderful skater and a good role model for young athletes to follow.

I love Peggy Fleming -- she was talented, unspoiled, and professional as an athlete. But folks who want to get to know Peggy in depth willl need more than this autobiography. Fleming writes in a very impersonal tone, as if she is telling the story of another skater. While it is chockful of details about skating programs and locations, it lacks any real insight into what it FELT LIKE to be a 1960s Olympic athlete and her views on the skating world today. Fleming barely mentions the pressures that skating must surely have placed on her formative years, family life, social and personal development, and self esteem. The impact of the family's Peggy-focus on her sibilings is only lightly mentioned in brief paragraph. Indeed, the most interesting struggle Fleming appears to have had was finding skating outfits that were both pretty and modest. There is also little indepth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the skating world today. Her commentary about the Harding/Kerrigan incident could have easily been made by a nonprofessional spectator. Fleming comes across as a nice person who speaks well of others and the sport, but lacks (or chooses to surpress) any kind of a critical eye to the controversies that have surfaced in the skating world (e.g., excessive pressure to excel, anorexia/bulimia, inside politics, etc.). It is a "nice" book, but Ms. Fleming remains a very private person which is not what one expects when the personal account of someone's life story!

Any fan of skating or of Peggy's should pick this one up. She is a true American success story, and a legend on the ice. This book is very personal, which is new since she's always been a very private person. Her struggle with cancer is really moving, and I'm so glad she's doing well now. I'm going to recommend this to all my friends who are skating fans too!

Peggy Fleming is a true champion, in every sense of the word. After reading her book, I was inspired by her dedication to her sport and even more so later to her battle against breast cancer. It was also great to get a real behind the scenes look at her life, including some surprising things like the fact that her mother MADE her costume for the Olympics, and Peggy recently became a Grandma! Great reading.

I admire and respect Peggy Fleming's skating talent and her commentary with Dick Button is legendary in the sport. However, this book was surprisingly disappointing. It is very disjointed and she basically spends too much time telling us how wonderful, determined, graceful and talented she is rather than showing us examples and stories in her life and letting us draw that conclusion for ourselves. I have no doubt she is all of those things, but the ego that is displayed in this self-serving book is unprecidented in any of many biographies I have ever read. There were a few humourous stories, and her dedication to skating and her family is obvious and admirable. The number of times she tells us how great she is overshadows her efforts to be top notch in whatever she does. If you can check this one out from the library and have a long plane trip to read it on, go ahead. Otherwise, to over use an analogy, there are many better ways to spend your "Long Program."

A truly great book--I could hear Peggy's voice in her words as I read each page! Peggy not only goes through her personal history but the last chapters are devoted to her cancer struggles, and her advice on fitness/health. She wants to help us all get through our own "long programs" in the healthiest ways possible. Peggy is very candid and open in her narrative and keeps your interest, even if you don't know much about the sport. Buy this book!

I read this book on a bitterly cold rainy weekend. It was perfect to brighten the dismal mood. Can we think of anyone who has conducted her post-athletic career in as classy a way. With her youth and beauty, whe could have "cashed in" and, like so may who gain celebrity, become overexposed and turned her fame into something vulgar. Read this and you will transported to a more innocent time.

Too bland. While Peggy Fleming's skating style will always be my favorite, reading this book felt like an entertainer who never really connected with the audience.

The book attempts to cover a smattering of events in the author's life but it was too superficial to hold my interest. Here's two examples:

-- Peggy alludes to her mother's domineering personality and provides the example of taking control her wedding, but doesn't get into any of the details or how this made her feel.
-- Peggy also mentions a favorite marinated pork recipe that she enjoys making for her family, and it would've seemed fitting that the recipe be included but it wasn't.

I'm not sure what the focus or the purpose of this book was/is. Is it Peggy's philosphy? An instruction book? Her life story? I think if the author just focused on one of these things, it would've been more successful in both quality and sales.

Well this book reflects what we see about Ms. Fleming in her television commentary - she is a lady in the true sense of the word. But if you're looking for an inside look at the politics of figure skating, keep looking. This is Peggy's personal story - there no juicy gossip (which says a lot about her as a person but would have made the book more interesting) - what I love the most is that she includes a copy of her choreography diagram for her 1968 figure skating program - It's interesting to see how they "write" out a figure skating program